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The Sunday Poem  is published weekly, and strives to include the poet reading their work.

Fred Shaw reads his poem at its conclusion.

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Keith Stebler

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The Subtle Art of Dinner Music
……….            -for Keith Stebler, Pittsburgh Jazz Hall of Famer

Even as another purpled sunset curtains
this bistro’s leaded windows, letting
dinner talk turn to hush while we pour
red wine with a burble, none of us can recall
when our glass-eyed piano man became
the lucky piece we fist bump at the threshold.
Tonight, with one hearing aid gone to shit
he sips another cold coffee, cocking his head
toward a speaker streaming some ballad
he’ll name in a grumble, hailing us with
swollen knuckles before asking for one
of our black sleeves, letting us guide him
like a grounded songbird, his free hand,
a wing searching for the gray edge
of his coddled Casio, tucked and waiting
for his touch among the velvet wallpaper
and roasted garlic perfuming the air.
Though some dub this gig as crowd control,
it’ll take him fiddling a speaker wire
to catch a bark of feedback before “Stormy”
comes greased from the keys, its melody,
ushering one husband to whisper into
his wife’s ear, making her giggle as he
reaches to cup her warm hand in his own.
Mostly, our soloist resists the old mantra—
the faster you play, the faster they eat—
in favor of mid-tempo numbers, bantering
with the crowd while we clear plates
and top waters before he strolls through
standards and showtunes muddled with age,
the stopper, a dusty “Hello Dolly” arriving
on schedule, his thin voice straining
to channel the gravel of Satchmo, tip jar
flurried with five-spots. After midnight,
when the place empties, a bag of leftovers
swings on his forearm as he white canes
his way across Lincoln Ave., the light
blinking orange, the magnet of wherever
it is that he calls home pulling him
through the October air, all of us warmed
by what we’ve downed together,
another stray bottle left open to breathe.

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Listen to Fred Shaw read his poem

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Fred Shaw is a Visiting Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Pittsburgh and was recently named to the Advisory Board for the International Poetry Forum.  His first collection,  Scraping Away, was published by CavanKerry Press in 2020. A second book is in the works.

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Watch a 2017 video of organist Keith Stebler playing Errol Garner’s “Misty,” with Roger Humphries,  (drums ); Mark Strickland, (guitar); and Lou Stellute (saxophone). 

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Keith Stebler, with fellow Pittsburgh native Ahmad Jamal

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Years later…Keith Stebler, tuning his piano

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Learn more about Keith by clicking here to visit his website

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The Sunday Poem

More poetry on Jerry Jazz Musician

“Saharan Blues on the Seine,” Aishatu Ado’s winning story in the 68th Jerry Jazz Musician Short Fiction Contest

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